Goldberg Variations

What the Whoopi Goldberg firestorm tells us.

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Hi,

This will almost surely be my first and last column on Whoopi Goldberg (no relation).

I’ve never been a big fan of Goldberg’s (I have different views about the plural category Goldbergs). But I think this episode raises all sorts of larger issues worth discussing. Just in case you missed the controversy, she said a bunch of ignorant things about the Holocaust. I don’t think any of them came from a sinister or antisemitic place. The woman has been saying for decades that she identifies as Jewish (more on that in a moment), which would be a weird thing for an antisemite to do. While antisemites say a lot of ignorant things about Jews, not every ignorant utterance about Jews is necessarily antisemitic. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and sometimes historical ignorance is just historical ignorance.

But what was interesting was how confident Goldberg was in her ignorance—and why she was so confident.

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  1. E. Ross

    Thanks for reminding me of why I have never watched “The View!” Utter drivel spewing from idiots.

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    Ben Connelly

    I’m actually impressed by the consistency Whoopi shows in defending Dolezal. That’s not a popular position to take. I don’t agree with it. But otherwise I’m completely on the same page about cultural appropriation. However, there is a difference between “identifying” in a certain way and making a commitment to it. “Identifying with” a religion is not akin to conversion.

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    Paul Gross

    As the ADL definition of racism clearly shows. Whoopi merely parroted what is being taught in all the "Diversity Gender Social Justice Equity, Etc ad infinitum" classes today. Whites are the only ones capable of racism and then only towards a POC. Blacks who hate Hispanics and vice versa apparently get a pass. This is the predicable path all this nonsense takes.

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    Tracie

    "Seriously, if you’ve read a single book—or Wikipedia page!—that even passingly discusses the Holocaust and Nazi thinking, you’ll know this."

    Yeah that's what gets me. I'm not a well-read person, grew up in a house where the TV was on all the time, spend way too much time on my phone - but I totally know Hitler was a racist.

    That's what scares me about CRT. Who cares about the finer points of the theory? Something like what Caryn articulated is the level at which most people I understand CRT. At the brownshirt level, if you will.

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    Patrick Finnegan

    I’ve never been a fan of TR, but did he really say this? Would love to have a source, thanks! “If all our nice friends in Beacon Street, and Newport, and Fifth Avenue, and Philadelphia, have one child, or no child at all, while all the Finnegans, Hooligans, Antonios, Mandelbaums and Rabinskis have eight, or nine, or 10—it’s simply a question of the multiplication table. How are you going to get away from it?”

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    Antebellum Whig

    "(no relation)" - a joke can be easy and still very funny

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    Julia Brebner

    I also come to say Bravo! Thanks for your intelligent, informed commentary.

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    Lawrence C Berg

    First, I am no fan of Whoopi or the den of fascists on the The View. While she said that the Holocaust was not about race because both Germans and Jews are Caucasians (or implied that), she did say it was about man's inhumanity to man. How does that equate her as a racist or Holocaust denier? I grew up taught there was three races, Caucasian, Negroid, and Mongoloid and that the subgroups were ethnic groups.

    By all means dump on Whoopi for her leftist proclivities, but I see no evidence that she has any animosity towards Jews. The Holocaust was the gravest example of man's inhumanity to man.

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      Narwhal

      Would you mind explaining why you describe the View as a “den of fascists”? Thanks.

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        Lawrence C Berg

        Most hosts of The View, both now and historically, have been very progressive. Since American Progressivism is our particular variant of fascism, I described The View as a den of fascists.

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          Narwhal

          Thanks for giving your explanation.

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  9. Scott Stewart

    Google "Frank Zappa TV Toilet". That's it. That's the comment.

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  10. Lynn

    I thought this was a pretty good article until I got to the end. Seems like something is missing-the summation / concluding thought perhaps?

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